It's Been a Long Time

It's been a long time since I have posted. It's been a long time since I even thought about creating a recipe. It's been a long time since I have really cooked, although I have made time for some baked goods. All in all I've been absent for 3 months and here is why. Matt and I have got a little bun in the oven. A little bun that was sucking the drive out of my life for a while. I am going to be 15 weeks on Saturday, and am thrilled to be in the 2nd trimester and feeling great for the most part. Perhaps I will start cooking again. I'm not making any promises, but since I am not just laying on the couch for most of the day, I'm going to try another go at this little blog.

14 weeks!

One exciting food happening of last week was donuts. Oh yes! I read about these little gems and convinced Matt that it would be a shame not to order them. They are from Larsen Bakery in Wisconsin and were shipped to us by Vegan Essentials. We ordered the sampler pack which included 3 bavarian cream donuts, 3 raspberry filled donuts, and 3 ring donuts. They also sent a tub each of chocolate and vanilla icing. My favorite donut as a child was jelly filled, so it was pretty amazing eating one of those again. Matt loves bavarian cream, and these fit the bill. They were delicious and I would recommend them if you ever want to splurge on your budget, and your sugar intake.

While I do not have a recipe for you today, I thought I would add some link love. I am finally able to start enjoying food blogs again instead of avoiding them, so here are a few recipes that I have bookmarked for future use.

Chocolate Mint Bites from The Bee's Knees Kitchen

Iced Lemonade from Cheeky Kitchen

(made this the other week. Amazing!)

Beet Chips from Rawmazing

Cucumber Avocado Boats from Kristen's Raw

(Just might have to make these tonight. I have been loving cucumbers lately.)

Mocha Ice Cream Sandwiches from Manifest Vegan

Asparagus Potato Salad from Oh She Glows

Easy Eats

Sorry for my absence from the blog. Life is happening at our house, leaving me with little time and energy for recipe creating or blogging. Although this morning Matt came up with a great idea for a dish that I am excited to try out. Thankfully my camera, although still not working well, has let me take a few pictures successfully.

Lately, I've been eating a lot of Van's frozen gluten free waffles, and banana whip. The banana whip is frozen banana's pushed through my champion juicer, creating a lovely soft serve ice cream. You can create a similar treat by processing frozen bananas in your food processor or high speed blender. Drizzle on some maple syrup and you have a seemingly decadent breakfast that is healthy too.

Grapefruit has also been a reoccurring treat. We don't buy grapefruit too often, so when

we do I am always reminded of how much I love that tangy, bitter, sweet flavor.

Easy soups have also been on the menu. This one was super easy because I just poured it

out of the box. Usually grilled cheese sandwiches are the accompaniment of tomato soup, but I decided to try something new. So these salt and pepper toast sticks came to be.

Here is the super simple recipe.

Salt and Pepper Toast Sticks

serves 1

2 slices of bread of choice

(I used Sami's Millet Bread)

0live oil

salt

pepper

Brush olive oil on each side of the bread slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, on both sides.

Grill in a hot George Foreman Grill, or on a hot skillet. You could even toast them in the oven.

Once they are hot and crispy, cut the bread slices into strips. Serve with hot tomato soup, or soup of choice.

I'm Salivating

Sorry for my absence. It's been a crazy week, and my camera is acting strange and not working very well. Hopefully I can figure out what is up with it soon. So this post is another one showcasing some amazing looking food from other blogs. Unfortunately, there will be no pictures in this one. Sorry. But click on the links and get inspired by some truly

delicious looking food!

Desserts First!

1. Raw Chocolate Ganache from Nature Insider.

2. Chocolate Butter from Giver's Log (I really want to try this one with some Earth Balance).

3. Orange Creamsicle Tarts from The Bees Knees Kitchen.

4. Semla from Cooking Vegan Food Up North.

5. Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Cake from Chocolate Covered Katie.

6. Apple Donuts from The Verdant Life.

7. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard from Oh She Glows.

Ok, ok, enough with the desserts.

1. Red Hot Bruschetta from Healthy. Happy. Life.

2. Raw BBQ Sauce from Yum Universe.

3. Vegan Shepherds Pie with Gravy from Oh She Glows.

4. Peter Rabbit's Smoothie from Lexie's Kitchen.

5. Black Quinoa Corn Muffins from My New Roots.

Hope you find a little kitchen inspiration. Are there any recipes you have been eyeing on other blogs?

Weekend During the Week

We needed a little vacation. Just some time to get away from our normal day to day routine and rest. Spring break was our excuse, so I took a day off of work and we spent a couple nights in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is one of our favorite getaway spots for a couple reasons. 1. It's close enough to be ok with driving there. 2. It has many vegan options for food. So we go there to eat more or less. Which in my mind is the best part of vacations anyway.

Here are some moments that truly made our mid-week hiatus.

Indian lunch buffet at Banana Leaf. Amazing mostly vegan buffet, incredible appetizers, a delicious special vegan dessert, and best of all a staff so helpful in kind, it was like we were a guest in their home.

Walks on high street and perusing the little specialty shops while sipping delicious chocolate flavored tea.

Super cute shopping bags.

A Pattycake Bakery bag full of goodies to share at Cup O Joe.

Hot tea and a good read. Em, I think you would really like this book if you haven't read it already.

Cashew Cardamom Truffle.

Late night snack of a gluten free German Chocolate Cupcake. I Still don't believe it was

gluten free, it was so good.

Leisurely browsing through cookbooks.

It was a great couple of days. The most we have just relaxed in a long time. My trouble is

that I can't get enough of these times. When is the next trip?

I put off writing this post as it seems so trivial as it happened while the tragic events in Japan were going on. It really put some perspective on treasuring the moments we have. Things happen, for better or worse, in an instant.

Have a good week. May you treasure all those moments.

Lovely Day For a Sandwich

Something about the spring-ish weather and maybe something about this post has got me thinking about sandwiches. I bought some veganaise the other day just because I was craving tomato sandwiches. Sadly tomatoes are not in season and I'm not a fan of grocery store tomatoes either. So today I created this gem, and now my sandwich craving has been filled.

Slice a zucchini into thin strips.

Balsamic marinade. Yum!

Marinate the veggies for an hour.

Coat one side of the bread slices with a little bit of the marinade.

Veganiase, one of my favorite things.

Grill the sandwich for a bit.

Lunch is served!

Marinated Veggie Panini

serves 1

1/4 cup olive oil

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

5 or 6 thin slices of zucchini

salt and pepper to taste

onion slices (as much as desired)

mixed greens or spinach

Veganaise

2 slices of bread

In a jar with a tight lid, shake together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Pour into a shallow dish and lay zucchini slices in the marinade. Add the onion and toss everything to make sure it is fully coated. Marinate for about 1 hour. When you are ready to make your sandwich, remove vegetables from the marinade and lay on a plate so that they can drain a bit. Rub some of the marinade on one side of each bread slice. Turn the bread over and coat the opposite side with veganaise. Top with mixed greens and the zucchini and onions. Put the two halves together and use a George Foreman grill or a hot skillet to grill for a few minutes. Enjoy!

Juice Fest

This week has been a good week. Fifteen pounds of carrots and 2 bags of apples were juiced in the course of 5 days. Call us crazy, or call us addicted. It was great, even more so, because I didn't make any of it until I pushed a couple kale leaves down the shoot.

Matt decided he wanted to juice for lunches instead of his usual bread fest. He said that he felt a lot lighter this week and really liked it. His preferred combination is 1 apple for every 3 very large carrots, along with roughly a teaspoon sized chunk of fresh ginger, and one orange. Double that for a very large glass of juice, minus the ginger or it will get a bit strong.

This was our last helping.

So refreshing!

I added 4 kale leaves to my glass making it an unappetizing muddy color, but it still tasted good.

On a drastically unhealthier note, I was so excited to see these vegan candy bars at the local

co-op.

Matt and I split the candy bar and were immediately on a sugar buzz. I have not had

a candy bar in so long. I can't believe I used to be able to put away a whole one.

But then again I can believe it as this one was amazing. I'm looking forward to trying the other 2 flavors offered.

Hope you all are having an enjoyable weekend!

Gluten Free Scones

Scones are a treat that I bake often. I choose them over muffins or cookies. Matt asks for them every other week. We love them. Lately, I have cut most wheat out of my diet (I have had some soy sauce here and there). So I've been relying on spelt flour for a lot of my baking and have also been trying to incorporate more gluten free recipes.

So, last night when Matt asked me to bake scones, I decided to bake two kinds and try one gluten free. The results were pretty great. I was really impressed. This is the recipe I used, and below is how I adapted it. I am also trying to lower the amount of sugar I eat, so I substituted some ground shredded coconut to replace the sugar bulk. I really liked the result, but you can tell that there are coconut shreds in the scone when you are chewing. If you don't like coconut and are not opposed to the sugar, try it that way.

Low Sugar, Gluten Free, Chocolate Chip Scones

1 cup sweet white sorghum flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, ground even finer in a

coffee grinder or food processor

1 Tbs baking powder

few shakes of sea salt

1/2 to 1 teas cinnamon (depending on your preference)

1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil

1 cup of almond milk mixed with 1 teas apple cider vinegar

1 teas vanilla extract

1/4 teas almond extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a measuring cup combine milk and apple cider vinegar and let set a couple minutes. Meanwhile, cut in the coconut oil and combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the chocolate chips. Add the vanilla and almond extracts to the milk mixture and pour into the dry mix and combine, adding more milk if needed. The dough should be able to stick together when shaping it in your hands. Shape the dough into a ball and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Flatten and shape the dough into a disc about an inch thick. Pour a tiny bit of almond milk on top of the shaped dough and brush it across the surface. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for about 12 minutes at 450 degrees F.